


A Shared Anchorhold

by notearchiver



Category: 14th Century CE RPF
Genre: Anchoritic Spirituality, F/F, Medieval Christianity, Pre-Slash, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26092618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notearchiver/pseuds/notearchiver
Summary: A brief account of a nighttime meeting between a most clean anchoress and a tempting creature.
Relationships: Julian of Norwich & Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich/Margery Kempe
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6
Collections: Short August Medieval Exchange 2020





	1. A Shared Anchorhold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reine_des_corbeaux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reine_des_corbeaux/gifts).



> For those that are nerdy about medieval things (or are just interested!), see chapter 2 for an excerpt from _The Book of Margery Kempe_ (ca. 1438) in which Margery of Kempe recounts her meeting with Julian of Norwich.

And then she was bidden by our Lord to go to an anchoress in the same city, who was called Dame Julian.  
\- Margery Kempe, _The Book of Margery Kempe_

A muffled sob floated through the small window that granted her a view to the serving girl's parlor and Julian shifted so she was lying on her side, cheek pressed against the rough weave of her pallet. The woman had been crying since sundown, the occasional noise of the public house across town the only interruption. When Julian had invited the woman to lodge with her for the night and sent her serving girl home, she had not anticipated being unable to sleep.

Another cry, and this time Julian could hear the woman entreating the Virgin Mary to grant her chastity.

Julian sighed and stood up. May the blessed Virgin grant _her_ patience. Crossing her small cell, Julian peered through the window. The woman was on her knees, eyes lifted towards the Heavens. Perhaps a few words of comfort would calm her.

"Dearest sister, come to me," Julian said quietly. The woman did not stir, so she raised her voice. "Margery, come!" At this the woman startled.

"Lady Julian?" Margery asked, coming to the window. In the light from the moon, Julian could see tears glistening against Margery's red cheeks and locks of hair that had escaped her scarf clinging to the sweat on her forehead.

"Sister, what bereaves you so?" Julian inquired. Margery turned her head to the side, looking at what Julian knew to be a plain stone wall.

"I am sorrowful that I have not my chastity," Margery murmured. "It is a failing I am unable to resolve, and the beauteous cleanness God has granted you only illuminates the darkness of my sin." The redness on Margery's cheeks deepened, and Julian could not help but notice how the flush traveled down Margery's neck, lightening at it reached the curves of her ample bosom that had fed so many children of Christ. Margery's shift had loosened at some point during her prayers, the ties at her neck coming undone, and the flapping cloth revealed a different type of blush, this one a subtle browning of skin turning to rosy pink. A faint heat blossomed in Julian's cheeks, and she too looked to the side, her eyes landing on the wooden door separating her cell from the parlor.

What comfort could she grant the poor woman? Julian's heart beat at a strange tempo, one she had not felt since last communing with the Lord. The door sharpened in her vision, the notch in the wood that served to open it was a deep shadow Julian had never touched. It would doubtless be rough against her fingers, as harsh as the day it had been carved, for no hand had worn down the edges. Her heart beat ever so fast, the will of the Lord flowing through her.

Julian grasped the notch and with some difficulty but no trepidation pulled the door open. Margery knelt on the other side.

Stepping back from the door, Julian stretched out her hand to the crying woman. "Dearest Margery, enter my cell so we may speak with no misunderstandings between us."

Several seconds passed before Margery looked up, wonder and worship in her eyes. Julian was familiar with the look for it was one many pilgrims held when speaking to her, but never before had it made her abdomen hot, nor had she ever experienced muscles between her legs tense in such a way.

Julian barely realized that Margery had clasped her band before Margery entered the cell, shuffling sideways through the narrow opening between the door and Julian. For a moment hands were tangled between the two bodies, faces a few pages of parchment apart, but it was gone quickly, and Julian closed the door.

When she turned back, Margery was sitting cross-legged next to the pallet. She had arranged her shift so it did not restrict her, and the woven fabric was bunched up above her thighs. The expanse of skin caught the moonlight.

A bit unmoored, Julian knelt on the pallet and this time it was she that enclosed her hands around the other woman's. Her knees touched Margery's, cloth against skin, and silence enveloped the two as she pondered what to say. Before Julian had been so sure that God would give her a message, but now the cell was silent and without His presence.

"Margery, dear sister in Christ," Julian began, fumbling for words, "be not troubled by your state of cleanness. It is most clear to me from our discussions that our most gracious Lord has visited you in visions and affirmed your path. Are our lives not dictated by His wishes? He has chosen you to lose your cleanness, but He has also shown you the path to chastity. He is unable to sin, and so you are not mired in uncleanliness from the past. In your crying you have been born anew." Julian released Margery and patted the pallet. "Now come, lie with me as sisters in Christ. Let us sleep so that we may be rested and able to receive His insight when the dawn comes."

Julian lay down and it wasn't long before a soft body pressed up against her front and Margery rested her head against Julian's neck. Faint breaths whispered across Julian's collarbone, but Julian could not explain the heat coursing through her body by that alone. She closed her eyes and let her senses expand.

Bare feet touched hers, and against her thighs Julian felt the lump of where Margery's shift was bunched up; the other woman had never pulled it down. There was a slight space between their abdomens, and the lack of pressure only served to highlight the heavy press of Margery's chest against hers. Julian imagined that if she could look between them she would see one of Margery's breasts bared to the moonlight, her nipple hardened by the cool air of spring. The nipple would quiver with each of Margery's inhales, and it would be so easy to reach up and—

A hand on Julian's hip brought her attention back to the whole of the woman next to her.

"Thank you, Lady Julian," Margery was saying. "Your kind words are more than this creature deserves. How may I repay you?"

Julian moved Margery's hand off her side and scooted back a bit so she could see the woman. She focused on her face; the tears had dried. From this distance she could count Margery's eyelashes. "You do not have to repay me," she said, twining Margery's fingers in hers. "All shall be well."


	2. Excerpt from The Book of Margery Kempe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What follows is Margery Kempe's account of her visit with Julian of Norwich, as recounted in _The Book of Margery Kempe_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kempe, Margery. _The Book of Margery Kempe_. ca. 1438. Translated and edited by Lynn Staley, Norton & Co., 2001, pp. 32-33. Norton Critical Edition.

And then she [Margery Kempe] was bidden by our Lord to go to an anchoress in the same city [Norwich], who was called Dame Julian. And so she did and showed her the grace that God put in her soul of compunction, contrition, sweetness and devotion, compassion with holy meditation and high contemplation, and full many holy speeches and dalliances that our Lord spoke to her soul, and many wonderful revelations which she showed to the anchoress to learn if there were any deceit in them, for the anchoress was expert in such things and good counsel could give.

The anchoress, hearing the marvelous goodness of our Lord, highly thanked God with all her heart for his visitation, counseling this creature to be obedient to the will of our Lord God and fulfill with all her mights whatever he put in her soul if it were not against the worship of God and profit of her fellow Christians, for, if it were, then it were not the moving of a good spirit but rather of an evil spirit.

"The Holy Ghost moves never a thing against charity, and, if he did, he would be contrary to his own self, for he is all charity. Also he moves a soul to all chasteness, for chaste livers are called the temple of the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost makes a soul stable and steadfast in the right faith and right belief. And a double man in soul is ever unstable and unsteadfast in all his ways. He that is evermore doubting is like the flood of the sea, which is moved and borne about with the wind, and that man is not likely to receive the gifts of God. What creature that has these tokens, he must steadfastly believe that the Holy Ghost dwells in his soul. And much more, when God visits a creature with tears of contrition, devotion, or compassion, he may and ought to believe that the Holy Ghost is in his soul. Saint Paul says that the Holy Ghost asks for us with unspeakable mournings and weepings so plenteously that the tears may not be numbered. There may no evil spirit give these tokens, for Jerome says that tears torment more the devil than do the pains of hell. God and the devil are evermore contrary, and they shall never dwell together in one place, and the devil has no power in a man's soul. Holy Writ says that the soul of a righteous man is the seat of God, and so I trust, sister, that you are. I pray God grant you perseverance. Set your trust in God and fear not the language of the world, for the more despite, shame, and reproof that you have in the world, the greater is your merit in the sight of God. Patience is necessary unto you for in that shall you keep your soul."

Much was the holy dalliance that the anchoress and this creature had by commoning _*_ in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ the many days that they were together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _*_ The verb "common" may has many meanings, including to have something in common, to associate with, or to have sexual intercourse with.


End file.
